Youth, family and society: Examining the dynamics of e-cigarette usein Latino college students

Objectives We aimed to document the social factors encouraging and discouraging e-cigarette use amongst Latino college students. Participants Participants were second-generation Latino male college students. Methods We interviewed 20 second-generation Latino male college students, 10 regular smokers and 10 infrequent smokers, at the University of California, Irvine and the University of California, Riverside. Results Regular and infrequent smokers present similar motivations that either encourage or discourage e-cigarette use. Repeated peer-exposure, skepticism of the harmfulness of recreational use, and disagreement with familial views of substance use encourage e-cigarette use. High costs, weak nicotine euphoria, and evidence of health risks discourage e-cigarette use. Conclusions Our results suggest that motivations for e-cigarette use in Latino college students are similar to those of young, non-Latinos and that regular and infrequent users may be determined by temporal circumstances and opportunity as opposed to unique social factors. Further research is warranted to comprehensively investigate this phenomenon.